Dancing to Someone Else's Song
by holygoof101
Summary: In an instant Will can see a future he never knew he wanted.


A/N: so this fic assumes you've seen season 1 and at least the first two episodes of season 2 and takes place in the future beyond that. This came on hard and fast, I seriously wrote it in about two hours and apparently I've forgotten how to write transitions without just using breaks. I don't even care if this is good or not, sorry if you're expecting too much more than a bunch of dialogue. I just needed to write it out before my brain exploded. Title comes from Andrew McMahon's High Dive.

00000

Will Freeman hasn't missed New York. He knows he hasn't because he's more than ready to get the hell out of the city. It's been nothing but rushing and pushing and shoving and meetings and all the grown up shit he hates since he got here three days ago. He's more than ready to be back home in San Francisco playing video games on his couch. Which is why he's annoyed it's taking so long to get a cab. If he were a chick he'd have had a cab, five cans ago and he's relived when one finally stops and he gets in, his ears met by a pleasant surprise.

"Hey, hey, hey," he vigorously taps on the cab driver's seat. "Turn this up. This is my song." In the rear view mirror he sees the cab driver's annoyed expression. "No really this is my song. I wrote this."

"Yeah, sure ya did. Where to?"

"No, I'm a song writer, that's why I'm here in New York. I've had meetings about other people that want me to write for them. I wrote this song about a girl that lives here."

"Meter's running, where to?"

He blows out a breath and shrugs giving up on getting the driver to believe him, "JF... No wait, hang on." He reaches for his wallet and rifles through, tossing have the cards in his wallet onto the seat until he finds what he's looking for, a small slip of paper that he extended out the driver, "Here, go there."

He probably should have just gone to the airport but he's in New York. And he hasn't missed New York but he's here because he's writing again and he wouldn't be writing again if it weren't for a girl so he wants to at least try to see that girl. He might not have known it until just a few moments ago, but he knows it now. He hands the driver money as they pull in front of the building. The driver takes his money and barely waits for him to get out of the cab before driving away. Which is more than fine with him, he didn't want to deal with that dude anymore anyway and he can get another can when he's done here. Which may take a while because he has no idea how he's going to get into the building. He doesn't live there anymore and he doesn't want to just buzz her... He needs a plan. But plans are something he's never been good at.

"Hey!" He calls out as he sees a doorman step outside. He's going to talk to the doorman; he can talk his way into or out of anything so it seems as good a plan as any to talk to the doorman. "Hey, you know if the girl in 3E is home?"

The doorman raises an eyebrow, and shakes his head, "I don't know anything about anyone being home."

"Okay, yeah I know how this works." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet, "My friend Benjamin wants to know if the girl in 3E is home."

The doorman quickly glances around and snatches the bill from him, "3E is up for rent. The doctor girl there moved a few weeks ago."

"Moved? Moved where?" He holds out another bill.

"Damn, you could seem less desperate and more discreet. She went back to where she came from... California, San Francisco I believe. Something about wanting to be with some ex boyfriend. Now you can keep handing me money and I'll take it but that's all I know."

Will shoves his wallet back into his pocket and almost slams into a passerby as he turns around, "No, no, that's great. All I need to know. Thanks!" He yells hailing a cab.

"Hey, I know what you look like if she turns up dead." The doorman yells back at him.

He waves him off and climbs into the first can that stops, hurrying so fast he alms or closes his foot in the door, "JFK as fast as you can."

0000

In flight wifi is his best friend right now. Usually he would make small talk with the person sitting next to him; mostly he would talk about himself. If it were a cute girl sitting next to him he tried he to impress her, convince her to come home with him when the plane landed. That's how he operates, that's Will 1.0, but right now he doesn't want to be Will 1.0. He wants to be Will 2.0 again, and with Sam back in San Francisco he could be. Or he could be better, he could be Will 3.0. The version of his life he could have had if Sam hadn't been moving to New York, and they'd stayed in San Francisco... maybe that's more like Will 2.5 but he can see it. This vision of what would have happened if they'd never gone to New York. If lived in his house next door to Marcus and Fiona. The dinners with them and Andy and his family... Maybe he and Sam would even have a kid of their own by now. A little rug rat chasing Marcus around the backyard.

None of it was stuff he could see when they were together, but he can see it all now. He can see it clearly and he wants it. He wants it badly. And if Sam moved back to San Francisco for an ex boyfriend, then she must want it too. Or at least something like it. So in flight wifi is his best friend right now because he needs to track her down, find out where she's living so he can show up and tell her he wants it as well. It's the only thing that matters to him right now and the plane he's on can't get him home fast enough.

0000000

"You're my guy; this is why I pay..." He's practically yelling into the phone as the cab pulls up in front of his house. "Do you have an address for me or not..." That's all he wants is her address, not some lecture about abuse of knowledge or whatever he's being lecture on. He stopped paying attention to that ten seconds after the conversation began, "Just give me the address." He scrawls it down on a piece of paper and before he's even out of the cab, he's met with the sound of Marcus' voice.

"Will! Mom, Will's home!"

He grins as Marcus makes his way over, "Hey buddy, big news. Sam's back!"

"Sam!" Marcus jumps and looks toward the cab as he throws his hands in the air, jumping up and down so fast it almost seems like his feet don't touch the ground. "Mom! Sam's back too! Where is she? Where is she, Will? Where is she? I'll help get her stuff!"

"What's this about Sam being back? Where is she?" Fiona's voice echoes as she comes outside clapping her hands together.

"Whoa, now," Will says holding his hands out in a stop motion. "Let's all slow down here for a moment. Yes, Sam is back. But she's not here. She's just back in San Francisco. I have her address and I have to go find her so she can be back here. With me."

Fiona's face twists and her shoulders drop, "You know this how?"

He can't fight the eye roll that comes through before he speaks, "because before I left New York, I went to our old place and the doorman said-"

"The doorman said? You're basing everything you know off what an apartment doorman said?"

An exasperated sigh leaves Will's chest as he shakes his head, "Yes. But you didn't let me finish. The doorman at our old apartment said that the girl in 3E had moved back to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago because of some old boyfriend. That's me. I'm the old boyfriend so I had Richard track down her address and-"

"Oh you had Richard track her down. So now you're a stalker."

He can fell his shoulders tensing up at Fiona's allegation. "I'm not a stalker."

"Yea mom," Marcus pipes up, his voice still lit up with the same excitement it carried moments before. "Will's not a stalker."

"Thank you, Marcus," he reaches over and fist bumps him before turning back to Fiona. "I'm not a stalker."

"No? Then what do you call a guy that gets a piece of information about a girl he hasn't spoken with in nearly two years from a TOTAL stranger then decides to abuse his connections to get her address so he can what? Show up at her house and professor his love? What do you call that, Will?"

"Agh!" He yells and throws his hands up in the air, "look I don't have time for this. Sam is here, minutes away and I have to go see her. I have to go see her right now." He reaches for his keys and starts towards his car fully intent on ignoring anything else Fiona has to say.

"Total exuberance, Will! Total exuberance!"

He looks back and sees Marcus' arm raised in the air, and he raises his too, "Total exuberance, buddy!" He yells back and gets in his car only to have Fiona stop him before he can close the door.

"Will," her hand lands in his arm and her voice is softer, lacking the judgment she was imposing moments ago. "I just don't want to see you get hurt again."

"I'm not going to get hurt again. There was nothing wrong with my relationship with Sam. We didn't work because I was miserable in New York. But we worked here. And if she's here for an ex boyfriend, that's me. We work here, we were happy here. I know it and she knew it. And now she's back so we can work again. I have to do this." He can see disbelief in her eyes but he knows he's right, and he's not sure why it's so important he make her believe he's right, but it is. "I have to go. I have to go to her right now. I'm not going to get hurt Fiona."

Her hand lets go of his arm as she slowly nods at him. He nods back and closes the car door. She's not convinced and he knows that but she will be when he shows up with Sam. She will be and he'll be able to wave it in her face forever. Forever because that's how long he wants with Sam, and how long he wants her and Marcus to be around to see it.

He guns his engine and tears out of the driveway wanting his forever to start as soon as possible.

000000

The drive to her address isn't far but by the time he turns into her neighborhood it's dark. He has to squint to read the street signs and with every sign and every turn his heart beats faster. It's scary, in the way total exuberance is supposed to be and as he makes the final turn into her street, his heart is pounding so fast he feels like he can't breathe but at the same time it all feels... Right. He kills his headlights as he pulls up to the curb as GPS voice tells him he's reached his destination. His eyes glance over and he's relieved to see the small house has lights on. He blows out a breath and starts imagining what's about to happen. He'll go to the door and knock, she'll answer surprised. He'll profess his love, she'll do the same and everything will be great. Everything will be the way it should have been years ago.

He nods to himself and gets out of the car confident that what he sees in his head will be exactly the way it all goes. His eyes turn up and his breath leaves him. There's a big bag window that's letting him look in the house and... She's there. She's there. His Sam is there dancing in front of that bay window like she doesn't know he's watching. Because she doesn't know he's watching. And for that moment he's glad she doesn't know he's watching because he just wants to watch her dance, and remember how good it feels to be with her and how amazing it's going to feel when he's with her again. So he takes the time to watch her and remember the moment so he can tell their kids about it one day. And as soon as he's sure he's going to be able to tell the story he's going to put one foot in front of the other and walk to the front door.

She's doing this crazy jumping, spinning dance thing he knows too well because she used to do it in their kitchen, when he catches a glimpse of a shadow that can only be another person. And his breath leaves him again, only this time it's not her taking his breath away. It's his chest deflating because the shadow is another person, not just another person. It's dude. A dude that's jumping around with her that she jumps on and her lips are on and she's falling to the floor with and before he has time to process it all the lights are out and the visions are gone. Everything he saw is gone. She's gone. She's been gone a long time. He gets back in his car and now he's gone too.

00000

It's close to one in the morning when he stumbles into his back yard, a six pack of beer he doesn't really need tucked under his arm. He's not sure which bar he left his car at but he'll figure that out in the morning. Right now all he wants to do is climb into the tree house and drink. Well really what he wants to do is go get Marcus to come sit in the tree house and talk but Fiona would have a fit if he did that so he's just going to drink in the tree house by himself as soon as he figures out how to get him and his beer up there.

"Okay buddy," he pats the six pack under his arm. "Just you and me, let's do this." He puts a foot on the ladder and starts to climb. One handed climbing into a tree house isn't as easy as he thought it'd be but he makes it. And he rewards himself by opening up his first beer.

"Will? That better be you."

"Ugh," he groans to himself at the sound of Fiona's voice. She and her judgey-ness happen to be the last person he wants to see and maybe if he just lies there quietly she'll go away. Its wishful thinking, she never goes away. Ever since she and Marcus moved in next door anytime he wanted her to just go away she refused. She doesn't even know for sure he's up there and still this is one of those instances. He knows because he can hear her huffing and puffing her way up the ladder.

"Look you win. I don't want to hear right now okay." He says as from flat on his back he tries to pour beer in his mouth without choking and fails.

"Don't want to hear what?" She says as she takes the beer from his hand and forces him to sit up.

"That's mine." He says taking his bottle from her and handing her a fresh beer from his six pack. "I don't want to hear that you were right. That I'm a stalker and I shouldn't have chased after a girl I hadn't spoken to in years because it wasn't me..." He blows out a breath and finishes off his beer. "It wasn't me. I packed my whole life up and was leaving it behind for her. She

left me on the side of the road... And when she packed her life up and moved back it wasn't for me. I'm not the guy. I'm not good enough."

"I don't believe that..." She pauses and nods her head from side to side, "Well not that your were the guy your current inebriated state makes it obvious that you were the guy but I don't believe for a minute that you're not good enough."

"I'm not." He shakes his head at her and blows out a breath. "Where's Marcus? Go wake Marcus up, I need him."

"Nooo, Marcus is sleeping and you are in no condition to be spilling your guts to my teenage son, so spill them to me."

"Fine. But know I'm doing this begrudgingly and I don't want to hear I told you so and I don't want to hear any of your new age philosophical garbage." His eyes blink several times to focus and he waits for her to nod in agreement. "I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. I shouldn't have. It's just... Sam... She's the only woman I've ever loved and I was too selfish to really be with her. When I thought we had a second chance, all that stuff I didn't think I wanted... I wanted. We never even really talked about marriage and kids and stuff but... All my friends, Andy, Richard, even TJ, are married and most of them have kids... Hell Andy is working on a baseball team of kids... I'm 37 years old, Fiona. I'm 37 years old with nothing to show for it but stuff. What do I have but stuff?"

"So you know I didn't come up here to be right. The bartender called and told me you were on your way home in a taxi. I came out here to make sure you were okay which obviously you're not... But you have more than stuff. You still have Marcus. He adores you."

"Marcus..." He smiles for a minute and the. Shakes his head and falls back. "Marcus, the teenager that's my best friend... For now but he's a teenager. What am I left with when he grows up and leaves me behind too? I'm just going to die alone."

"You're not going to die alone," she smiles and finishes the beer he'd handed her. "You'll still have me." Her body sinks down. "You'll still have me. And we can be alone together."

He feels her scoot closer to him until their heads touch each other, "Yeah," he mumbles and turns towards her, "you mean that?" Her head nods against his and he smiles for the first time in hours. "Then I guess we can be alone together."


End file.
